One of the most underreported ongoing stories around is the war in Mexico between the government and the drug cartels. Here are the grisly stats: More than 28,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 1996. In Iraq, 4,421 Americans have been killed. In Afghanistan, 1,141.

The truth is that Mexican drug merchants are even more deadly than al-Qaida. They have more firepower and more money and are just as willing to kill civilians as are the homicidal jihadists. Yet, we Americans know little about the chaotic situation south of the border.

The reason is that the drug cartels don’t seem to threaten us directly. But, of course, they do. Illegal narcotics from Mexico wind up in almost every community in the United States. The FBI estimates that about 70 percent of crimes from coast to coast are drug-fueled.

The latest atrocity in the Mexican drug war was the discovery of 72 bodies on a ranch 100 miles south of Texas. The dead — 58 men and 14 women — were migrants from South and Central America. The lone survivor of the massacre says that cartel gunmen shot the unarmed folks because they resisted an extortion attempt.

The reliably anti-American New York Times partially blamed the mass killings on the U.S.: ‘‘Mexico’s drug cartels are nourished from outside, by American cash, heavy weapons and addiction; the northward pull of immigrants is fueled by our demand for low-wage labor.’’

I had to read that editorial three times to believe it. Here we have the Times, which opposes putting the National Guard on the border, the tough anti-alien law in Arizona and most other measures that might secure the border, complaining about the illegal gun and drug traffic. Can you believe this? Hey, you pinheads, if the United States would send 10,000 National Guardspeople to help the border patrol, drugs and guns would not be able to cross the border so easily. Comprende?

This entire grisly charade is infuriating. This country has the power to stop the smuggling of human beings and drugs across the southern border. We could do that. But, for political reasons, we don’t. Meanwhile, the drug cartels kill at will and create terror on a scale not seen anywhere else on Earth at this time.

Mexico, itself, is at fault because it won’t ask for American help. Apparently the Mexican government thinks 28,000 dead is acceptable. Well, it’s not. U.S. law enforcement and troops should be assisting Mexican authorities in the destruction of the cartels. The fact that these drug animals have been able to operate their murderous industry so openly for so long is beyond shameful.

Manuel Noriega turned his country, Panama, into a narco-state, and in 1989, President George H.W. Bush sent U.S. forces in to remove him. President Barack Obama might study that campaign. Something needs to be done in Mexico.